Bio

I am a writer, dancer, futurist, and hi-tech entrepreneur.

I’ve most recently been focused on the fields of dimensional data visualization, VR, and immersive entertainment. Here is a long bio that captures most of my various career highlights over the past 20 years:

Stephen Marshall is the internationally known creator of Channel Zero, the world’s first global VHS newsmagazine. Distributed in Tower, Virgin and HMV record stores around the world, Channel Zero became an underground hit and one of the first successes of the small-format video revolution. The Village Voice wrote, “Leave it to a Canadian to revolutionize television.” The Toronto Star called Channel Zero, “A mind blowing trip, one neither CNN nor 60 Minutes would ever take.”

After co-founding the popular underground news site Guerrilla News Network (GNN) in 2000, Stephen directed more than 15 NewsVideos, including the Sundance Award-winning, Crack the CIA, as well as controversial music videos for Beastie Boys, Eminem and 50 Cent. His first feature documentary, shot on the ground in Iraq months after the invasion, BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge won the Silver Hugo for Best Documentary at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival and was acquired by Showtime Network and and Home Vision for tv and home video respectively. This Revolution, his first narrative feature, which starred Rosario Dawson and premiered at Sundance 2005, was released in 2006.

His last feature doc, produced by Smuggler, was HolyWars. The critically-acclaimed film was selected for competition at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including AFI/Discovery Silverdocs and IDFA. Variety‘s Justin Chang wrote, “[Marshall’s] cool, agnostic approach effectively modulates the intense battle of wills that develops between the uniquely compelling subjects.” Moviefone chose it as “one of the best documentaries of 2010.”

He is also the author of two books: True Lies (2004, Penguin/Plume) about the psychology of disinformation in the mainstream news, and Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing (2007, Virgin/Disinfo) on the false duality of liberal/conservative that is presented to the US public (see clips from the press tour, below).

In 2012 Stephen moved into tech, tapping funding from some of Silicon Valley’s top VCs for his data visualization start-up ORA, which is on the cutting-edge of generative design. Go-to-market sectors include the medical and climate change sectors.

But he remains deeply passionate about the psychedelic and mystical realms, working as conceptual designer and writer on a spectrum of VR and film projects with the visionary director GMUNK. Check out our two latest projects: Telestron and Asteria!

Over the span of his career, Stephen has traveled and worked in more than 60 countries.